SAMMY SOSA

i just read that Sammy Sosa is considering retirement if no one offers him a job soon..  have to say it made me think about sammy and his time as a cub and how fast he went from being the king of cubdom to sammy who???

really the guy for 12 yrs put up eye popping numbers, was an all star and mvp candidate for years.. he basically was the biggest star on the Cubs in the 90's...  knocking out 30+ homers in 11 yrs , includeing 3 yrs over 60..  drove in 100+ runs in 9 straight yrs,, and where he went on a 5 yr tear of hitting 292 hr and drove in 705 runs..

 last year with the Rangers he still hit 21 hr and drove in 92 runs in just 114 games..

boy what a corked bat, leaveing a game early, and dusty baker will do to a guys career.. who had it all..

steroids??  well yes his head looked like a hot air balloon on a popsicle stick but hey he was never accused, caught, or if im not mistaken mentioned in jose canseco books.

come on we all loved sammy when he was smackn them out of the park, lets not forget how happy no.21 made us with his dugout kisses and sprints to right field.. sammy was the man, the gladiator..   i do hope that one year in the future when he is a hall of famer and i believe after a few voteing years he will be one with his 600 homers and not been mentioned as a steroid user that they will fly the no. 21 on the right field pole..  he and his 570 cubs homers includeing the team record of 66 deserves it, no matter what you think of him today,, just remember you loved him for those 12 years he was hitting them out of sight..

What do you say sbout giving him a 1 day deal so he could retire as a cub? Like you pointed out he hit 570 hrs with the club.

I still like Sammy.  I'm not sure why so many Cubs have such vitriol for him.  He MADE the Cubs for 12 years. 

While I do suspect he was a steriod user, his ties to steriods are far far FAR less than many many many more people.  And I can go inside the numbers to prove (to a certain degree at least) that his HR explosion wasn't as far fetched as most believe.

So, yeah, he deserves some flak for some of the stuff he did, but he doesn't deserve all he's getting.  If the steriods never happened, he would be regarded as the greatest Chicago Cub player ever.  Now, I'll wait for all the nay-sayers who think I'm a nut!

i think he wouldve been or may be one of the greatest cub player ever.. at least next to ernie banks, billy williams, ryne sandberg, and others..    jose canseco killed alot of ball players name like mcguire, bonds, palmiero, and clemons to name a few...

hmmmm......  If he did get inducted into the hall, I wonder if he would remember how to speak English for his acceptance speech? (rememeber his congressional hearing?)

I was always a fan, although I was a much bigger fan of Gracie and Sandberg.  Sosa just seemed a little fake to me, and If you think he didnt use roids or HGH, I think your nuts, even if it hasnt been proven.  That said, he was one of many, many players to use, so that shouldnt disqualify him from anything.  I dont have any ill will towards the guy, and appreciate what he did for the Cubs for all those years.  The only thing he really has to be ashamed of is his time spent with the White Sox.

"basbol has ben berry berry good to me"

The fact that people were bothered by him speaking through an attorney at Congress also has always baffled me.

If I moved to Sweden for 15 years for my job, and learned how to speak Swedish well enough to communicate, and I was brought before the Swedish Congress to give testimony, I would certainly bring a Swedish attorney with me to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding anything - even though I spoke the language well enough to communicate in every day life.  (Hell, i just had to look up if Sweden was spelled with two "ee"s or one!)

Anywho, I certainly think that he used steriods.  But, he is far less connected to them than McGuire, Bonds, Palmeiro or Clemens.

And maybe he was kind of fake.  but at least he was fake in a good way....i.e. maybe his happy-go-lucky was a affected but it was better than Bonds-like brooding and self rightousness.

Sammy was an awesome cub. There is no doubt about that. Now its a matter of which Sammy you liked. Me personally. I liked the early Sammy. Ya know. The one who would hit a homerun and steal bases in one game. That was the Sammy I like to remember. Not the one who traded high fives and special hand shakes with McGuire.

Sammy Sosa and the HR chase literally saved baseball in 98'.

Maybe it depends which baseball era you are from. I think I might be a bit of a baseball purist. All that homerun crap seemed to ruin the game for me. I love the pitchers duels, the great defense, the fundementals. I like a srike zone from the knees to the chest not from the belt to the belly button. Myself I'm tired of seeng players swing from their heels when all you need is single or sac fly or just move a runner along. I like to see pitchers throwing inside without some hot-head charging the mound. I like hard slides into 2nd base or at least making a middle infielder actually have a foot on the bag if they are going to turn a double play. I liked watching a guy like Freddie Patek playing shortstop, all 5 foot 5 and 145 pounds of him. Now if you are 6'5 240 you on a team, even if you cant run or throw to a cut off man or lay down a sac bunt if thats what the team needs. Times have changed but for me, not for the better.

Grizz,

While I agree with many of the things you said and enjoy the game as you do, the home run chase "saved" baseball in a different way.

The player's strike in 1994 left a bad taste in a lot of fans' mouths, especially the casual fan.  Ticket sales and merchandise were on the way down.  The NBA and NFL were growing and growing in popularity.

However, the home run race of 1998 got those casual fans back into the game, going to the game, watching it on tv.  It was exciting.  Watching each game became an important even.

Furthermore, Sosa's happy-go-lucky attitude, albeit it may not have been completely genuine to some, was certainly a refreshing face to put on the game - and a complete juxaposition to the overall grumpiness of McGwire.  Sosa seemed to even loosen up el grumpo McGuire into a few laughes.

Looking back on it now, we are all a bit jaded since the whole PED explosion and most people assume that both of these guys did them.

But it did "save" baseball from the downward spiral it was on (see generally, the NHL).  It made a lot of money for all the owners and the league and the players themselves.

Hey Joe

I agree. it did save the game for the casual fan. I would have been fine waiting for baseball to work out the kinks and bring back ball the way it was meant to be played. I just didnt need the gimicks, or the pea sized strike zone or "the chase"  to make me interested. Just good baseball would have done it for me. That reminds me, I miss not being able to buy a ticket the day of the game and get a good seat. AHHH the good old days.